HONG KONG—A court in China’s troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang has handed a life sentence to a Uyghur youth for alleged murder during July 2009 unrest, but rights groups and relatives say his trial was unfair and he may have been tortured.

Chinese authorities in the Silk Road town of Aksu [in Chinese, Akesu] detained Noor-Ul-Islam Sherbaz on July 27 in the wake of rioting in Urumqi, when he was just 17.

“I think under severe torture my son was forced to sign the confession,” Noor-Ul-Islam’s father Sherbaz Khan, who is a Pakistani national, said.

He said his son was convicted after his image appeared on security cameras in downtown Urumqi, the regional capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), on the night that Uyghurs demonstrated for an investigation into the deaths of two Uyghur migrants in southern China.

“On July 5, my son left the house to attend the entrance examination for the third year of high school,” Khan said.

“On his way back home, the demonstration was taking place. He was very interested in the demonstration and at this point his image was captured in the security camera.”

“I have asked my son whether he participated in the demonstration, and he told me ‘I was very afraid and returned home immediately.’”

30-minute trial

The Aksu Intermediate People’s Court handed down the life sentence on April 13, following a trial that lasted just 30 minutes, according to rights group Amnesty International.

He was found guilty of “murder (or intentional homicide)” and “provoking an incident” under Articles 232 and 293 of China’s Criminal Law.

Noor-Ul-Islam had been held incommunicado since his detention, Amnesty International said in a statement on its Web site.

“Police informed his family that he was detained because of his alleged participation in demonstrations in Urumqi on 5 July 2009 and told them that a boy of his build was suspected of attacking people with stones,” the group said.

According to the statement, the court was shown video footage of a group of Uyghurs beating a man.

“Noor-Ul-Islam Sherbaz was not present in the group beating the man in the video nor is he shown on the video carrying a stone,” the Amnesty statement said.

“The video does, however, show him on the same street.”

Possible torture

The group said the conviction appears to have been secured on the basis of a second video in which Noor-Ul-Islam confessed to killing someone.

“It is possible that his confession was extracted through torture,” Amnesty International said, adding that he was given legal representation and planned to appeal the verdict.

Sherbaz Khan called for outside pressure on the Chinese authorities.

“My son is innocent,” said Sherbaz Khan, who had been working as a vendor on the streets of Urumqi to send his son to university.

“The Chinese authorities have constantly called me and threatened me,” he added.

“They said, ‘If you try to inform foreign organizations about the situation of your son, he will be punished more severely’.”

He said his son was spared the death sentence because the authorities claimed he had confessed to his crime.

“There are thousands and thousands of innocent Uyghurs like my son suffering in Chinese prisons,” Khan said.

“I’m confident that justice will prevail and my son will be proven innocent. He is still a teenager,” he said.

Noor-Ul-Islam was a student at the No. 3 High School in Urumqi who was planning to go to university.

Khan said his wife Pashayim had lost her job after her son’s detention became known.

Deadly clashes

Official records say that nearly 200 people died in the July violence in Urumqi, the majority of them “innocent Han Chinese killed by angry mobs,” with more than 1,600 people injured in the violence, which came from both ethnic groups.

Uyghur eyewitnesses have accused the security forces of using excessive force on unarmed demonstrators, including beatings, the use of teargas, and shooting directly into crowds of protesters, with many Uyghur deaths ignored by official media reports.

China reported last August to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that they were holding 718 people in connection with the July unrest and in December they announced the arrest of an additional 94 people during a “strike hard” campaign in Xinjiang.

Campaign-style law enforcement, known in China as “strike hard” campaigns, are commonplace in Xinjiang, putting police, prosecutors, and judges under pressure to secure speedy convictions.

Millions of Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate Central Asia and the XUAR in northwestern China.

Ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese settlers have simmered for years, and erupted in July 2009 in rioting that left some 200 people dead, according to the Chinese government’s tally.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China’s ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

HONG KONG—Two prominent members of the exiled Turkic-speaking Uyghur community, many of whom oppose Chinese rule in their homeland, are on the run from the authorities following police raids on their homes.

Omer and Akbar Khan, who co-founded a charity to teach Pakistani Uyghurs their own language in the northern city of Rawalpindi, said they had fled from police after neighbors told them their close relatives had been detained for several hours.

“We didn’t do anything wrong, but we have decided to stay away from the police for some time, because of the unknown fate of two other guys [we know],” said Omer Khan, 35, who recently applied for a Belgian visa to attend a training program for Uyghur activists outside China.

“A few other Uyghurs were arrested and disappeared last year,” Omer Khan said.

Police detained the Khans’ 52-year-old father and 50-year-old mother, along with their two younger brothers, aged 15 and 18, according to a Uyghur source who asked not to be named.

According to a neighbor, the Khan family was released after 10 hours in detention.

“The raid was so harsh,” one neighbor said.

“The two brothers’ faces were forcibly covered as they were being pushed to the police car.”

Pressure from China

The brothers blame China, rather than their adopted homeland, and say the raid came in response to pressure from Beijing on the Pakistani authorities to step up pressure on Uyghur exiles, many of whom are vocal campaigners for independence for the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

“We believe that all this is happening under instructions from the Chinese government,” Akbar Khan said.

The brothers said Pakistani authorities also detained Abdul Haliq, 29, on March 22, while Memet Rozi, 80, and Eneyetullah, 28, were detained March 26.

Omer Khan, who said his house was searched March 31, added: “They don’t like Uyghurs to undertake organized and established activities, whether they are social, cultural, or political.”

He said the Khan brothers were in regular communication with the president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, Rebiya Kadeer.

“Ms. Kadeer always encourages us to protect our national identity. Maybe this also makes the Chinese government upset,” Omer Khan said.

Training planned

The Omer Trust charity organization sets up a relief tent to help feed and provide support to war refugees after the Taliban occupied northern Pakistan, May 27, 2009. Credit: RFA The Khan brothers had planned to attend a meeting in Belgium from April 25-27 which offered training for Uyghur activists around the world.

“This also may have made the Chinese government upset. In short, being a Uyghur makes the Chinese government uncomfortable,” Omer Khan said.

He said those Uyghurs already detained in Pakistan had all been close to Kadeer, whom Beijing blames for instigating deadly ethnic riots in the regional capital of Urumqi last July.

Pakistan is home to around 1,000 Uyghur families, mostly those who left China during the 1950s and 60s.

Last December, Xinjiang authorities detained Pakistani Uyghur Kamirdin Abdurahman on suspicion of “harming public order,” before asking him to infiltrate Uyghur groups back in Pakistan.

Uyghur exiles fear surveillance once they leave China, especially if they have left family behind, and they say their fears have worsened since deadly ethnic riots last July—which prompted a major security crackdown.

Xinjiang has been plagued in recent years by bombings, attacks, and riots that Chinese authorities blame on Uyghur separatists.

Cambodian case

Cambodian authorities in December returned to China a group of ethnic Uyghurs who had sought political asylum, despite international concern that they could face torture and execution for allegedly taking part in deadly ethnic riots in China this year.

Rights groups, which urged Phnom Penh to stop the deportations, say Cambodia is bound by a 1951 convention on refugees pledging not to return asylum-seekers to countries where they will face persecution.

Cambodia has already received more than U.S. $1 billion in foreign direct investment from China, which in October agreed to provide U.S. $853 million in loans to the impoverished country for dams, infrastructure, and irrigation projects.

The Chinese government has detained hundreds of Uyghurs, and at least 43 Uyghur men have disappeared in the wake of ethnic violence that erupted in Urumqi on July 5, according to Human Rights Watch, which says the actual number of disappearances is likely far higher.

Nearly 200 people were killed in the clashes, by the Chinese government’s tally. Twelve people have since been sentenced to death in connection with the violence.

Uyghurs, a distinct and mostly Muslim ethnic group, have long complained of religious, political, and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities, and tensions have simmered in the Xinjiang region for years.